The core principle of a shared commitment to improve the lives of children, young people and families – enshrined in the Children Act 2004 section 10 ‘duty to co-operate’ – remains as important as ever. The focal point for decision-making about local children should be shaped by local considerations.

The changes to Children’s Trusts are fully consistent with the introduction of the new health and wellbeing boards. Both are part of an ongoing shift towards greater local autonomy which includes: removing or revising much of the statutory guidance for schools and local authorities; streamlining the inspection framework; reviewing and rationalising central government data collections and removing ringfenced grants.

What has changed

From 31 October 2010:

  • Heavily prescriptive statutory guidance on Children’s Trusts was withdrawn. 
  • Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) Regulations were revoked. This means that Children’s Trust Boards are no longer required to produce a statutory Children and Young People’s Plan, but may continue to do so where it makes sense locally.

What this means

The Children’s Trusts' duty to cooperate remains in force.  Local Children’s Trust arrangements are underpinned by the ‘duty to cooperate’ (section 10 of the Children Act 2004) and there are no plans to repeal this duty. But there is now considerable flexibility in how local partners may implement it.

The Government planned to remove schools and colleges from the ‘duty to cooperate’ in 2011 but was persuaded to retain the duty while interested parties work through how best to implement the reforms outlined in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Green Paper.  

‘Relevant partners’ under section 10 of the Children Act 2004 continue to be:

  • District councils
  • Strategic health authorities
  • Primary Care Trusts
  • Youth offending teams
  • Police
  • Probation services
  • Persons providing ‘Connexions’ services in pursuance of section 68 of the Education and Skills Act 2008
  • Jobcentre Plus
  • Maintained schools
  • FE and sixth-form colleges
  • Non-maintained special schools
  • Academies, city technology colleges and city colleges for the technology of arts

Subject to the successful passage of the Health and Social Care Bill the section 10 duty will be transferred to the NHS Commissioning Board and clinical commissioning groups.

Children’s Trust Boards

There is still a requirement for each local authority to have a Children's Trust Board which must include representatives of the local authority and each of the Children's Trust ‘relevant partners’ (apart from the Strategic Health Authority). But there are no longer any regulations or central guidance on how this should be done.

Local areas are free to ensure the Children’s Trust Board fits within newly emerging structures in ways that best reflect and meet local needs. There is no longer a requirement on the Children’s Trust Board to prepare a Children and Young People’s Plan. However, in those areas where a Children’s Trust Board prepared and published a CYPP before October 2010 then the Board is still required to monitor the plan until the end of the plan period. In this case the Children's Trust Board will still have to prepare an annual report about the extent to which persons and bodies have acted in accordance with the plan that year - but how they undertake this activity is up to them.

Boards have autonomy and flexibility in the way they work. For example:

  • There are no guidelines setting out how often the Board should meet and operate.
  • There is no prescription on the name of the Board or that it should have a clear and separate identity within the wider cooperation arrangements. For example, it would be possible for the Board to be a subset of another board in the local area.
  • There is no need to for a separate representative for each relevant partner. The local authority and the other relevant partners can agree that one person or body can represent others. For example, the Director of Children’s Services, if agreed, can represent schools and JobCentre Plus.

Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP)

The 2010 Children and Young People’s Plan regulations have been revoked and local areas are no longer required to prepare this plan.

Local partnerships are free to publish their own strategic plan as they see fit and there is no prescribed format, matters to be dealt with, timing or who to consult during the preparation of the plan. Relevant partners are not under any formal duty to ‘have regard’ to any voluntary plan.

Lead member and director of children’s services

We have no plans to repeal the legislation requiring local authorities to appoint lead members for children’s services (LMCSs) and directors of children’s services (DCSs). Following consultation the statutory guidance on the roles and responsibilities of the DCS and LMCS is being shortened and simplified to promote greater local autonomy. We expect to publish it in April 2012.